Monday, July 29, 2019

Upside

The last couple of weeks have been tough, what with my brother's health scare, the loss of our pet, and the loss of my friend. Thankfully, there are a lot of very good things that happened too.

First, my friends and I revisited Mystery Manila and we successfully made it out of the Sorcerer's Stone room in Ayala the 30th. Thankfully, we managed to turn things after after our previous failed attempt to escape. There are still more rooms for us to try out so I look forward to our next escape room experience.


I also had a game nights in two consecutive weekends. Just last weekend, I played Valeria Card Kingdoms, Grand Austria Hotel, and Oceanos with my ex-colleagues. Most of them were playing these games for the first time (Denise had played Valeria Card Kingdoms before) but they seemed to enjoy all the games I brought. We just need to schedule another game night soon while they can still somewhat remember the rules. :) The week before, I got to play Wingspan again. I also got to play many new games, including Imperial Settler: Roll and Write, Kartel, Cabo, Prêt-à-Porter, and My Happy Farm. Prêt-à-Porter was probably my favorite of everything that I played that night, due to its complexity and the fact that there are so many ways to score points. It took me a while to grasp the many rules of the game so I am looking forward to playing it again.

My Happy Farm

I got to meet up with my ex-colleagues from my second job a couple of times. First was during the birthday of the daughter of Joh and Raffa. It was a grand celebration with a fun-filled program and lots of really good food (I believe their caterer was The Creamery). Second was over dinner in Manam with Ian, who was in Manila for a few days as he was doing a major tour of Asia.

Food from The Creamery

Interestingly enough, I met up with my high school friends the night before also in Manam (but a different branch) so we could meet up with Jerma. I hadn't seen Jerma in decades so it was amazing to see her again.

I also spent an afternoon with KC, Nery, and Ricci, all of whom I haven't seen in a while. KC and Nery are getting ready for their wedding and they asked me to sing at their wedding with Ricci accompanying me on guitar. We spent the afternoon over coffee discussing the songs we would play. It was great catching up with them and since Ricci and I have to practice, I am sure we will be seeing each other a lot more.

Finally, our department at work also spent a Friday night at the nearby karaoke place singing our hearts out. It was the first time that I got to hang out with my colleagues outside the office and the fact that we sang such a varied repertoire - from Ed Sheeran to Queen to the Spice Girls to Aegis - made it such a memorable evening.

As they say, life is like a Ferris wheel, sometimes you're up, sometimes you're down. I'm just grateful to have many incredible people in my life to balance out the terribly low moments.

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